Today we honor the submariners of the USS Robalo (SS-273). The best evidence available points to July 26, 1944 as the day the Robalo struck a Japanese mine in the dangerous Balabac Strait. The evidence also suggests that as many as six of the submariners, including her captain, Commander Manning M. Kimmel, survived the blast and swam to Palawan Island, where they were captured by Japanese military police, jailed, and probably executed. The remaining submariners slipped below the waves with the mighty Robalo. All eighty-one of them are now together on Eternal Patrol. Please join me today by taking time to read their story and remembering their sacrifice for our country.
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